Linda's Canadian Adventure

Already a few weeks ago, but here’s a story and pictures of New York. We went to New York for a few days. My friend Karen who lives in Vancouver was raised in Brooklyn and New Jersey and was visiting her mother in New Jersey for a couple of weeks. We came for a few days and stayed with her mom as well. New Jersey is not far from Manhattan, just a bus or train ride away across the river.

We took the ferry to Staten Island so we could see the statue of liberty up close. We didn’t go to it because the line-up was gigantic.

Karen showed us around downtown. Here are Karen and I in front of the Brooklyn Bridge.

I like the older buildings more that the new sky scrapers. I found some Dutch architecture close to Wall street.

It’s busy on the streets everywhere, people, cars and lots of taxi’s. The people are very divers, it doesn’t matter what you look like, everything goes. Everywhere in the city there is something going on. Mike was very impressed by this and is ready to move here for a year. Unfortunately he’ll have to go alone because I’m not joining him. No, this city is not in my top 10.

The building site of Ground Zero. Nothing much to see except that it was a large site. It’s is strange to be here, everybody can remember this day and what happened.

Times Square is a mad house, it’s so busy. All the Broadway Theatres and tv studios are here. We went to a Broadway show and that was the highlight of the trip for me. We saw ‘Guys & Dolls’, a classic musical in the ‘Nederlander’ theater. It was funny to see Lauren Graham (Lorelei from the Gilmore Girls) on stage dancing and singing. She can sing, but she can’t really dance.

It was Fleet week so the city was filled with marines and navy people in white suits, very nice! I had to have my picture taken with a couple of them.

A rest in Central Park. Even in the park it was very busy. The carriages with horses or bikes were passing by all the time. There is always something to do in the park: music, street performers and roller disco’s.

The memorial for John Lennon close to where he was shot. People are here all day long and we had a chat with the self proclaimed ‘mayor of Strawberry fields’. He makes sure the stone looks nice with rose petals and he’s here all day long with his dog. A band is playing Beatles music and tourists are coming and going.

Mike wanted to see Harlem and the Apollo theater. It has been in the news lately because it was the starting place of Michael Jackson’s career and that’s why we were here as well.

We went on top of the Empire State Building.

A last view of the city from the Empire State Building. Very cool to have visited New York, but I’m not in love with the city. I’m too spoiled with the European cities with lots of culture and history. There is culture and history in New York, but everything together and everything is done in the American way.